Trampled Rose, Frozen Heart
by Shinomori's Woman
Summary: She was but a innocent maiden caught and ripped open in the whirlwind of a vicious civil war. He was a prideful man losing his way amidst the cloud of burning villages. Can two souls so brutally bruised be mended, by each other?
1. Chapter 1

_**Trampled Rose, Frozen Heart**_

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Inu-yasha or anything related to it.**

Gunshot. Fire. Blood. Scream.

That was all the air was filled with, if not the brutality of the war and the fear in the hearts of common people. Soldiers stepped over fallen bodies to the next victim. Another life taken, one more toast to his name in the celebration later tonight. The thought was joyous, bringing more vigor to his already corrupted mind which shows in the mangled corpse of his next target. And the next. There was no time to waste repenting. Spare None. Destroy the entire village. That was the order. And to a soldier, an order was an order. You can do more than ordered, you can't do less that that. So he continued, not alone but with forty seven other brothers in arm.

It wasn't hard to massacre a clueless bunch of innocent villagers. It was a matter of few minutes and the task was successfully accomplished . Victorious shouts and triumphant whistles were soon followed by pathetic cries, feeble curses. Women. The only thing that kept their bed warm at nights, willing or not, it was their job. Do it or die. Some women preferred death but only a few were that loyal to their dead husbands or that sincere about their abolished family honor. Yet, they always put up a drama. Tears and curses. Pleas and spits. Who cared anyway? They conquered the village and everything living or dead belonged to them now. None but the women and young girls survived anyway. Cattle did. But they were slaughtered just as mercilessly adding more delicacy to their Victory Feast.

"Hey, look at this one." One soldier called to his fellow man, dragging a young maiden by her golden curls. "Ain't she a beauty? I don't think I'mma join the feast tonight. She makes me hungry already. I'm sure I ain't gonna offend someone if I have a taste right now, right baby?"

Uncivilized laughter broke out as the girl whimpered in the crushing embrace. Unsatisfied man took pleasure in the vile act of one of their own man ripping at the flesh of an innocent girl. No shouts of protest, no gentle rebuke to let go. Each waited for their own turn, eyeing the broken women being pushed into the truck with less gentleness than a hoard of cows. Perhaps tonight, they'll remember the touch of their love in the reluctant body of these helpless beauties.

Corpse laid forgotten on the dirt, in the fields, inside their home, their blood streaming with the river water, staining their own bed. Trucks roared to life, filled with looted goods, livestock and woman driven and lead by victory drunken beasts. The village stood crumpled in a burning heap. If one looked at it at this moment, no one could ever guess- this once was the centre of life of the adjoining areas.

For, war, you should know, is like the worst bout of plague, that never leaves anything unscathed.

**A.N:  I don't know, its like a prologue. I hate war movies and there's one of my favorite books, "All Quiet On The Western Front" by Eric Maria Remark, it makes me cry. I wanted to write something about the war victims who did nothing wrong, about those men who turned into beasts just for the sake of it, for those few good hearted warriors who being on the wrong side of the line tried to stay human.**

**And of course, for the sake of another Rin-Sesh romance. Inspired by "All is Fair" a fic I accidentally stumbled upon. Helps and suggestions are welcome. Flames too( cuz I'm yet to be flamed. And I don't understand why people who don't like the fics waste their time reading & reviewing them!)**

**Till next time. **

**Oh, 15 reviews or more, and you get what you want! The next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

The road was impossibly straight, making driving at one-eighty kilometers per hour a piece of cake. The wind smacked the handsome face carved from marble stone, leaving faint pink hue. Luscious white hair blew wildly, and the proud possessor cared not that it would give him a hell to pry out those tough knots. He looked out through the passenger's window, a stoic mask on , no one could ever understand that the devastated scenery around left a deeper mark on his mind than just war guilt and tension.

The war. How long has it been going on? Far too long for one to stay sane .It had begun as a struggle against the corrupt government and now, the blood, the fire and the haywire around, no one could say what they were fighting for. Fundamental rights? Morality? For the country and the countrymen? Perhaps, or not. The rebels with patriotic blood were now left with nothing but blood thirst, such fine warriors now reduced to nothing but common robbers, but more lowly and beastly. It was not their fault either. After all, what was there to keep them loyal, humane? Their families have long been slaughtered, no place or no one to go home to. The few families which still survived were either broken or out of contact. His own family had been blown apart by the war. His father, General Taisho, had fallen in love with a nurse when she had nursed him back to health from a fatal wound. It turned out they had a deeper history, years back when he was an aspiring officer and she a trainee nurse, they had shared one romantic night leading to the birth of a bastard. Years and years later, when truths were laid out, his father had chose to support his son and his mother. His own mother had not protested, stating they had long ago fallen out of love. He watched as his once perfect family broke apart. He blamed the war, he blamed his father. If there were no war, his father would not have been wounded, he would not have been nursed by his ex-lover, he would not have left his mother. He , Captain Sesshomaru Taisho would not have joined forces with the rebels just to go against his father.

It was too late . He couldn't go back now. It had been hard on his pride and self-respect to fight alongside those unskilled rebels who were more interested in destroying a village rather than fight original army. It had torn his insides to see children being killed and women being harassed in front of his very own eyes. It was wrong . And he could do nothing against it.

"Sir."

The dutiful voice jerked him out of his own thoughts and he leveled an icy glare to the young officer.

"The village in front has recently been conquered, would you like to inspect it, Sir?"

He chose not to answer but let his gaze fall around. The cloud, the smoke, the blood, one or two dead bodies here and there. He had seen it before. He would have to see it now. And he was sure he would see it again. It was his duty, to check that nothing and no one survived. Wordlessly, he stepped down from the jeep causing his inferiors to do so as well. He curtly instructed them of their duties and set about in a lose but graceful pace to do his own.

One dead body caught his eyes, a young girl ,already rotten and half-eaten by animals and birds. The foul stench did not bother him anymore, but her nudity did. He looked around to make sure he was alone and proceeded to cover her body with a stray piece of cloth hanging by the window of what seemed like a general shop. For a moment his gaze lingered on her face, and his eyes softened. Her golden curls were now dirty, but even in the half decayed state, Sesshomaru knew she had been young and beautiful and had a shameful death. Unintentionally, his thoughts floated back to another innocent village girl he'd met a few weeks back. He was badly wounded in a serious combat and upon regaining his consciousness, he had found himself by a river. He wasn't sure how he reached there but he was sure he would die without any help. And then she had found him, in the middle of the night and scored a place deep in his heart. He didn't want to reminisce her kindness because the stone hearted officer didn't need anyone's help. Especially from a young, helpless maiden. He scoffed at his own thoughts, who cared about those stupid things as gratefulness? But as he had promised ( to himself), if a day came, he would pay her back for her…..services.

Captain Taisho straightened from his posture bent over the corpse and called for a junior officer in sight

"Arrange for a common grave and bury the dead."

. "Yes sir!"

It wasn't kindness, he reasoned with himself as he got into the jeep once again. It was just duty.

* * *

Fire burnt everywhere, corpses lay strewn all over the place. Smoke clouded the screaming mass' vision as they ran around for their life. The will to live was such a dominant desire, and it was so easy to discourage a few of them with just a single bullet, a sharp stab of the bayonet or a hard hit to the head. So easy, so painful, so enjoyable. Soldiers shouted in unison as they won over another harmless village. A few hundred innocent lives taken, another noble deed done. It was war, after all. Now was the time to celebrate, to exercise their right over the conquered- The property, the livestock, the living, the dead. It didn't matter what they did to whom, they had won, it was rightfully theirs.

"Oi! Don't get too carried away with all these wenches. Search around for any survivor and kill them instantly. Got that?"

Several men hurried away into different directions at the order barked. Last time had been a mess, two men with a girl had managed to survive and report to the nearest army headquarters. Platoons had chased them like crazy dogs, resulting in several dead and their looted goods and captives taken. Further more, to set an example, the platoon commander had been hanged to death after two days of military torture.

After a number of doors kicked down and things scattered across the house, it was almost sure that it had been a clean job. No survivors.

"Clear." One soldier shouted from the upstairs, his voice accompanied with thudding steps laden with impatience. "Lets go. I wanna have some fun."

The one downstairs was a little more dutiful, as he nodded mutely and continued to scan through the small, disheveled kitchen.

"You found somethin' ?"

He nodded again, raising his index to lips, gun raised he pointed towards the small cabinet just under the stove. A feral glint appeared in the other soldier's eye, whatever his mate suspected, had caught his attention too. He mouthed one, two and three and with guns poised, flung the wooden door open.

Both men erupted into uncontrolled laughter, indecent whistles soon followed.

"You're one lucky bastard!"

"Glad I took this one!"

Their gaze was fixed on a small girl, huddled in the dark corners of the minimum space. She shrunk away as one rough hand grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her out.

"Lookie, lookie! What I got here!"

"Man, that's one uncorrupted beauty, bet we can change that in a while."

Laughter boomed through out the destructed house again and the "beauty" in question simply shrunk away some more as the soldiers eyed her appreciatively. Their inspection of the jewel was soon stopped as orders could be heard to gather around. Unwillingly but definitely in a happy mood with their discovery, the two soldiers dragged away the girl while she feebly attempted to struggle. By the time they reached the centre of the village, everybody had gathered round and the commander was making preparations to pack up. They pretty much dropped the young maiden at his feet like a sac of flour, grinning ear to ear.

"We're lucky to find this pretty one alive, right, Cap'n?"

He nudged the fallen girl with his boots as his senior stepped forward to take a closer look. A sick smile spread over his soiled, bloody face as he squatted down and gathered her black hair into his fist and yanked her face closer to his.

"Indeed we are." Doe eyes watered at being handled so roughly, but only a low whimper left her mouth. She felt a warm thumb caress her cheeks and hot breath inching closer and she closed her eyes. Suddenly she found herself back on the ground and blinked owlishly to find the man stalking away.

"This one's mine. No one touches her or else…" He left the sentence hanging for its implication and the two original captors only cursed mentally. They pushed the girl into the truck containing the other women and slammed the door closed. Several women rushed forward and held the weeping girl tenderly in their arms.

"Its okay Rin. Everything's going to be okay. We are all in this together."

The truck roared to life, its tremulous gurgle conveying the message to those helpless women. Everything was not going to be okay.

**A.N: Its un-beta'd. Please consider minor typos. Reviews are loved!**


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